Posted on 08/18/2010 6:30:21 AM PDT by detritus
It is hard to imagine that anything has gone unsaid about the so-called Ground Zero mosque, but an important point seems to be missing.
The mosque should be built precisely because we don't like the idea very much. We don't need constitutional protections to be agreeable, after all.
This point surpasses even all the obvious reasons for allowing the mosque, principally that there's no law against it. Precluding any such law, we let people worship when and where they please. That it hurts some people's feelings is, well, irrelevant in a nation of laws. And, really, don't we want to keep it that way?...
...[T]he more compelling point is that mosque opponents may lose by winning. Radical Muslims have set cities afire because their feelings were hurt. When a Muslim murdered filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam, it was because his feelings were hurt. Ditto the Muslims who rioted about cartoons depicting the image of Muhammad and sent frightened doodlers into hiding...
This is why plans for the mosque near Ground Zero should be allowed to proceed, if that's what these Muslims want. We teach tolerance by being tolerant. We can't insist that our freedom of speech allows us to draw cartoons or produce plays that Muslims find offensive and then demand that they be more sensitive to our feelings....
Nobody ever said freedom would be easy. We are challenged every day to reconcile what is allowable and what is acceptable. Compromise, though sometimes maddening, is part of the bargain. We let the Ku Klux Klan march, not because we agree with them but because they have a right to display their hideous ignorance.
Ultimately, when sensitivity becomes a cudgel against lawful expressions of speech or religious belief--or disbelief--we all lose.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Sure thing noob.
Mooslimbs have NO right to build their mosque anywhere they want to, it does not exist, sorry.
This logic is so obverse that it is actually comical.
By this logic, every American should be required to carry a gun, especially if they don’t like it. After all, it is part of American tradition and law.
I understand the infantile emotionalism and red-faced arm waving of Liberals. But it is when they attempt to use logic to justify their absurd positions that their childishness and incredibly distorted way of thinking is clearly exposed.
Liberals think differently than normal people. They have a dreamy emotional brain which has supplanted fanaticism for logic long ago. Liberalism is a culture which has embraced the childish notion that if you wish for something strong enough, it somehow will become true. They truly believe that reality is created by subjective perception and objective fact be damned.
The washington post does not get it. It is not “a” mosque, it is a victory mosque.
Just like they raped the christian church of Hagia Sophia, the moslems put a mosque in the conqued area as a symbol of victory.
it is not about feelings, it is about right and wrong. This is just plain wrong. (we have case law which prohibits pot churches and animal sacrifice churches in certain areas too)
My feeeeeelings are, never turn your back on an animal that bites or ignore a creed which promises to murder you, rape your women and enslave your children.
Your position might be defensible if they allow the Greek Orthodox Congreagation to rebuild their facility, across the street from the twin towers, first. Give the Greeks full support and then see about the Mosque.
How does that analogy apply to the many, many conservatives who not only condemn the building of the mosque but want to BAN the right of a PRIVATE owner to build it?
I will not be lectured to bout’ tolerance from a group so insensitive they will not listen to the protest of the victims’ families.
Anyone framing this as a case of “constitutional rights” and/or tolerance is EXTREMELY ignorant or dishonest.
“Precluding any such law, we let people worship when and where they please. That it hurts some people’s feelings is, well, irrelevant in a nation of laws.”
This would be fine, except that it only takes one person to bring a lawsuit saying his or her feelings were hurt to get the courts to ban prayer at graduation, or singing Christian songs in school at Christmas. “Hurt feelings” count a lot in the law when Christianity is the target.
Do they have a club? They could call it "Conservatives For Socialism"...
Since when have churches been allowed everywhere, Miz Parker?
Many cities have refused permits to build Christian churches.
Christians will have to quit turning the other cheek, it seems. The threat of bombs and beheading gets a much more favorable press from our pitiful Fourth Estate.
IBTZ
This isn't about intolerance. It is about our survival.
Sniff.....
Any leftist that proclaims anything about
freedom of religion
or
private property rights
needs to be strongly ridiculed.
Some? The families of over 2000+ murdered innocents, and 70+% of the country and a vast majority of New Yorkers is 'some'?
First, I don't know any New York builder who would want to soil their hands building this building. If they did, they would probably never work in New York again. Second, has anyone discussed the possibility of renewed violence. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if someone firebombed the building after it's built.
Part of the rationale for the mosque given by the imam and his supporters is to open up "bridge building" and "dialogue." How do you do that without paying attention to people's feelings? If these are the real aims of the imam, then he is a complete failure.
You don't do "bridge building" by ramming something down people's throats by having your supporters cite some abstract legal justification, while ignoring the real issues that concern people and making yourself unavailable for interviews and your whereabouts a secret.
Good catch. I have seen that as well.
I have also seen Leftists insist that we are guaranteed "Freedom from religion" which means you have to keep your faith out of sight, because they feel offended by your faith.
Kathleen Parker is the biggest idiot on the planet. Give into Mulsim triumphalism because we are passionately against it. Kathleen, doofus, is this the way you respond to a potential rapist? Give in to prove a point?
Nobody opposes the building of the mosque. The controversy is about the sensitive nature of the location of the mosque. How many Americas have been denied the permit to open a BBQ place because it was too close to a mosque?
We can’t have a policy, enforced by the state, of one-way sensitivity. We can’t have a situation, enforced by law, that allows Muslims to do whatever they want to do and then forces Christians and all Americans to tip-toe around them. And that is exactly where we are headed now.
You will have to clarify your remarks. I don’t understand your point.
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